In the mass production of workpieces, in particular in the mechanical manufacture of workpieces, the workpieces are successively fed to a plurality of machine tools in accordance with an exactly planned production routine. For this purpose, the workpieces are first channeled into the production system via a feed device and are then transported onward from one manufacturing machine to the next within the production system. Depending on the number of production operations, the workpieces are either channeled out of the production system via a removal device or are transferred via an automation buffer system to a further production system. The transport of the workpieces from one station of the production system to the next can take place via a gantry loader. A plurality of gantry loaders can also work in parallel or in series in the production system. A plurality of carriages can furthermore be provided at the gantry loader.
Gantry loaders typically work in a fully automated manner, with the control of the carriages taking place via stationary, centrally arranged controls that coordinate the operation of the carriages with the operation of the manufacturing machines and of the feed and/or removal device.
Such gantry loaders are known, for example, from DE 10 2012 011 534 A1, DE 10 2013 014 266 A1, and DE 10 2014 014 874 A1. Gantry loaders from the prior art have a supply chain comprising corresponding supply lines for supplying the carriage or carriages with energy and lubricants and for the data transfer with the carriage. Supply chains are, however, exposed to substantial wear due to the movement of the carriage. A subsequent extension of the gantry loader is furthermore only possible with a complete replacement of the supply chain. There is additionally a safety risk since the supply chain can fall off its support surface.
A transport system is known from DE 10 2006 049 588 A1 having a rail system and carriages movably arranged thereon, wherein the rails comprise a primary guidance system to which at least one secondary coil encompassed by the carriage is inductively coupled for a contactless transmission of electrical power and/or of information. A supply chain should hereby be dispensed with since the energy supply or the communication with the carriage takes place contactlessly. The implementation of the teaching known from DE 10 2006 049 588 A1 is, however, associated with considerable problems since the contactless transmission of high electrical powers such as is required for the operation of a carriage is associated with great difficulties.
It is therefore the object of the present disclosure to provide an improved gantry loader.
This object is achieved by a gantry loader in accordance with claim 1. Embodiments of the present disclosure form the subject of the dependent claims.
The present disclosure comprises a gantry loader having at least one carriage travelable at a horizontal guide rail, wherein the carriage has at least one drive. Provision is made in accordance with the present disclosure that the carriage has an energy store for an at least partial energy supply of the drive. Substantial advantages with respect to the configuration of the energy supply and the operation of the gantry loader result through the energy store.
The gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure can in particular serve the transport of workpieces between stations of a manufacturing system such as manufacturing machines and/or feed and/or removal devices. It can here in particular be used for the purposes that have been described in more detail above with respect to the conventional art.
In one embodiment, the drive of the present disclosure is an electric drive. The energy store is an electrical energy store. For example, a capacitor, in particular a supercap, and/or a rechargeable battery can be used as an energy store. The carriage here can have exclusively electrical drives.
The carriage furthermore may also have an energy recovery device for recovering energy from the movement of the carriage and/or from the movement of at least one component of the carriage, with the recovered energy being stored in the energy store. The energy consumption of the gantry loader can hereby be lowered.
The drive may serve the implementation of the energy recovery as a generator, with the energy recovery device having a control that stores the energy generated in the drive in the energy store.
In a first variant, the recovery device permits the recovery of kinetic energy from the deceleration process of the carriage and/or of at least one component of the carriage. A recovery of kinetic energy from the movement of the carriage along the horizontal guide rail can in particular be provided. Since the carriage stops frequently in the course of operation of the gantry loader, the deceleration process required for this purpose can be used for the energy recovery.
In a second variant that can be combined with the first variant, the energy recovery system permits the recovery of potential energy from the movement of a component of the carriage that is movable in at least the vertical direction. The component serves the movement of the workpieces in a vertical direction and/or supports a gripper.
An embodiment of the gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure serves the loading of the manufacturing machines and/or of the feed and/or removal device of the production line with workpieces from above. For this purpose, the carriage has a component that is at least also movable in a vertical direction and serves the raising or lowering of the workpieces.
In accordance with the above-described second variant, the potential energy of this component and/or of the workpiece can be recovered on the lowering of the component and can be stored in the energy store.
An embodiment of the gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure can have an energy supply device for supplying the carriage with energy. The energy supply device can serve the charging of the electrical energy store and/or the direct energy supply of the at least one drive of the carriage. The energy supply device may work contactlessly, in particular via inductions.
In a first embodiment variant of the present disclosure, the energy supply device can supply the carriage with energy permanently and/or in any travel position. The energy store in accordance with the present disclosure can serve the support of this energy supply device so that the energy supply device itself can be configured as less powerful.
An energy supply section of the energy recovery device in this variant extends over the total length of the guide rail. The energy supply device can in particular have one or more induction coils that extends or extend in their totality or extend over the total length of the guide rail. The carriage can have an induction consumer that cooperates with the induction coil or coils.
Provision can be made in a second variant of the present disclosure that the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy at times or in individual travel positions and/or travel sections and does not supply the carriage with energy at other times or in other individual travel positions and/or travel sections. In this case, the energy supply device in particular serves the charging of the energy store.
In this variant, the energy supply device can have a plurality of energy supply sections that are arranged at individual travel positions and that extend along individual travel sections, with sections without energy supply being provided between these travel positions and/or travel sections. The energy supply sections are respectively one or more induction coils that further cooperate with an induction consumer of the carriage.
The second variant enables a substantially less expensive configuration of the energy supply device since the latter no longer has to extend over the total length of the guide rail.
In an embodiment, the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy in at least one working position at which the carriage stops above a station of the manufacturing system such as a manufacturing machine and/or a feed and/or removal device to place a workpiece down or pick it up. An energy supply section, for example an induction coil, via which the carriage arranged in the work position is supplied with energy can in particular be associated with such a work position.
Since the carriage remains at such a work position for some time to place the workpiece down or pick it up, this time can now be used to charge the energy store.
There is furthermore typically a particularly high power consumption of the carriage at just such work positions so that it is of advantage for the configuration if the carriage or one or more drives of the carriage are supplied with energy in such a position both via the energy store and via the energy supply section. The energy transmission power of the energy supply section, but optionally also the storage power of the energy store, can hereby be configured as lower.
Alternatively or additionally, the energy supply device can supply the carriage with energy in at least one parking position. The energy supply device may have at least one energy storage section that is associated with the parking position. The energy supply section can in particular be an induction coil.
An embodiment of the carriage travels into the parking position by a control of the gantry loader and/or of the carriage for charging the energy store. This can take place, for example, in dependence on a charge state of the electrical energy store and/or at predefined times in the charge cycle.
In the parking position, the carriage may be located outside the travel region required for the transport of the workpieces.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present disclosure, the energy store can serve the coverage of consumption peaks. The energy supply device can hereby be dimensioned such that the peak power provided by the energy supply device is beneath the maximum power consumption of the carriage. Such an embodiment is of advantage both when the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy constantly and/or in every travel position and when the energy supply device primarily supplies the carriage with energy at times and/or at specific travel positions and/or travel sections.
In a second aspect of the present disclosure, the carriage can be operable at least at times solely via the energy of the energy store. This permits the energy supply device to be configured such that the carriage is no longer supplied with energy constantly and/or no longer at every travel position. The carriage therefore becomes independent of the energy supply device at least over a time period thanks to the energy store.
An embodiment of the carriage is operable primarily or exclusively via the energy of the energy store over at least one travel cycle and further over a plurality of travel cycles. A travel cycle comprises a picking up of a workpiece, a horizontal traveling of the carriage, and a placing down of the workpiece.
The energy store can also be configured such that the carriage is operable solely via the energy of the energy store over more than 30 minutes, over more than an hour.
In a possible embodiment of the present disclosure, the energy store is replaceable. The carriage can in particular be configured such that a discharge energy store can be replaced with a charged energy store. The replacement may take place without the carriage having to be mechanically released from the guide rail.
A charging of the energy store via an energy supply device of the gantry loader at the carriage can be dispensed with by the exchange of the energy store in a possible embodiment. Charging apparatus can optionally be completely dispensed with here.
Alternatively, the replaceability can be provided in addition to the rechargeability of the energy store at the carriage.
Embodiments of the gantry loader have a change station for a manual and/or automatic exchange of the energy store. The change station makes possible an access to the carriage for a manual exchange and/or has an automation system that removes the energy store from the carriage and replaces it with another energy store. The change station may have a charging apparatus for charging one or more energy stores. The change station may be arranged in the region of the guide rail and/or can be traveled to by the carriage by traveling along the guide rail into an exchange position.
Embodiments of the control of the carriage and/or of the gantry loader monitors the charge status of the energy store and outputs a display and/or a control signal when the charge status falls below a predefined limit value. An automatic traveling to the change station and/or an automatic replacement of the energy store takes/take place in response to the control signal.
Embodiments of the gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure comprises a cableless data transmission system for communication with the carriage. The data transmission system can in particular serve the communication with a control and/or with sensors of the carriage. The data transmission system can in particular enable communication between a control of the gantry loader and a control and/or sensors of the carriage.
In a first variant, the data transmission system comprises a slit hollow conductor that extends along the guide rail and cooperates with an antenna arranged at the carriage. The antenna arranged at the carriage may extend into the hollow conductor via the slit.
In a second variant that can be combined with the first variant, the cableless data transmission system permits communication with the carriage in any travel position of the carriage.
Provision is in contrast made in a third variant that the cableless communication system permits communication with the trolley in individual travel positions and/or travel sections and does not permit communication with the trolley in other individual travel positions and/or other travel sections. Such an intermittent data transmission can be sufficient in dependence on the technical control demands.
In this case, communication is possible in a work position in which the carriage stops above a station of the manufacturing system such as a manufacturing machine and/or of the feed and/or removal device to place down or pick up a workpiece and/or in a parking position. Corresponding communication elements may be provided for this purpose at these positions. The third variant can in particular be a point-to-point communication such as industrial Bluetooth.
The gantry loader can also have a plurality of parallel data transmission systems in accordance with one or more of the above-described variants.
The data transmission system or the data transmission systems may furthermore be designed as redundant.
The carriage may have a control for the at least one drive. The power electronics for controlling the drive can in particular be arranged in the carriage.
Embodiments of the control of the carriage receives commands and/or synchronization data for controlling the drive from a control of the gantry loader. Alternatively or additionally, the control can transmit status data of the carriage to a control of the gantry loader.
In a first variant, the regulation of the drive can take place via the control of the gantry loader. In this case, the control of the carriage transmits positional data and/or speed data to the control of the gantry loader that compares them with desired position values and desired speed values and transmits corresponding control commands for controlling the drive to the control of the carriage.
The first variant, in which the regulation of the drive takes place via the control of the gantry loader, is used with a communication system that permits constant communication with the carriage.
In a second variant, the regulation of the drive can take place via the control of the carriage. In this case, the control of the carriage itself evaluates the positional data and/or speed data and compares them with desired values to control the drive accordingly. The control of the gantry loader transmits the desired values to the control of the carriage.
If the regulation of the drive takes place via the control of the carriage, a communication system can also be used that provides intermittent communication with the carriage.
In this case, desired values for the position and/or speed of the component driven by the drive are transmitted via the communication system or such desired values are stored in a store of the control of the carriage so that only synchronization with the remaining elements of the production system has to be maintained via the communication systems.
Embodiments of the gantry loader include all the drives of the carriage being regulated via the control of the carriage or all the drives of the carriage via the control of the gantry loader.
Mixed systems are also conceivable with which the regulation of at least one drive of the carriage takes place via the control of the carriage and the regulation of at least one other drive takes place via the control of the gantry loader.
An embodiment of the carriage has an autonomous lubrication system having a lubricant container for the supply of at least one mechanical axle and/or at least one drive with lubricant. A lubricant supply to the carriage can hereby also be dispensed with.
An embodiment of the drive of the carriage along the guide rail takes place via a drive element of the carriage that meshes with a toothed rack of the guide rail. The position of the carriage at the guide rail is hereby unambiguously determined via the position of the drive element. The drive element can be a pinon or a worm.
The carriage can have a component that is at least also movable in the vertical direction. The component serves the movement of the workpieces in the vertical direction. The component can support a gripper for gripping the workpieces.
The component can have a vertically movable linear axle in a first embodiment. For example, a vertically movable toothed rack can be used that can be traveled vertically via a drive of the carriage. In a second embodiment, a robot arm having a plurality of pivot and/or rotational axles can be used. A 6-axis industrial robot can be arranged at the carriage, for example. A combination of linear axles and pivot and/or rotational axles is furthermore also conceivable.
The gantry in accordance with the present disclosure can be designed as a linear gantry in a first variant and as an area gantry in a second variant.
The guide rail may be supported via one or more supports and may extend above the production machines and/or the feed and/or removal devices of the production system. If it is an area gantry, the supports are stationary, with the guide rail being fixedly arranged at the supports. If it is an area gantry, either the supports are travelable or the guide rail at the supports is travelable.
The gantry loader may be designed such that it grips the workpieces directly or such that it grips pallets and/or workpiece holders that carry the workpieces.
The gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure can have two or more carriages that are movable along the same guide rail.
Since an energy supply change is no longer required, the gantry loader can be flexibly equipped with a plurality of carriages. A flexible adaptation to varying production routines is hereby in particular possible without any greater construction effort having to be made. The carriages can furthermore also be replaced without problem and without any great effort for servicing purposes.
The design of the gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure has the further advantage that the gantry loader can be extended without problem to adapt it to a varying production process or to new customer demands. In the design, only the guide rail has to be correspondingly extended for this purpose and optionally the energy supply sections and/or data transmission sections have to be extended or supplemented by new sections.
The present disclosure will now be explained in more detail with reference to embodiments and to drawings.